


Hello, World.

by PunishedPyotr



Series: Only Ones and Zeros [16]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: Awkward Tension, Evil Plans, Implied/Referenced Underage, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Multiple Personalities, Ocelmantis in a weird way, remember how this series has a plot?, reunion (sort of), reupload, self-hypnosis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 17:00:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14000589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunishedPyotr/pseuds/PunishedPyotr
Summary: “So… it’s decided, then?”“Yes. I’ll hand the whole Earth over tohimas long as it means I get to keep you.”





	Hello, World.

**Author's Note:**

> "A 'Hello, World!' program is a computer program that outputs or displays 'Hello, World!' to a user. Being a very simple program in most programming languages, it is often used to illustrate the basic syntax of a programming language for a working program. **It is often the very first program people write when they are new to a language.** " - Wikipedia, emphasis mine

_I heard… a rumor._

_That the attackers are targeting the girl._

The room they keep Mantis in is 8x8ft and hard, sterile tile. There’s a bed, a sink, a drain in the middle of the floor and in one corner a toilet and a shower, separated from the rest of the room by a curtain. They used to take the curtain away sometimes, saying that there was too much risk of Mantis hanging himself (herself?) if he (she?) was allowed it.

There are no windows and a single door; the door doesn’t have bars, just a tiny window with a sliding plate over it, on the opposite side as Mantis. He has no control over his own privacy. The girl doesn’t care much, but Mantis doesn’t like being looked at — strangely, moreso now that it’s not his own body that they’re _looking_ at. It’s _hers_.

And being touched is worse.

Today Mantis is hiding under the bed, loosely curled. Today Mantis is wondering if he’s ever going to be able to get back to the Patriot network and see Eli again. Today Mantis hears the stomp of boots and staccato rumble of gunfire in the hallways outside his cell.

He waits.

Attacks at the perimeter quickly escalated into an outright invasion, or so it seems. Mantis wants to escape - as long as he still has the nanomachines (which frankly he’s stuck with no matter where he goes or what he does, they’re part of his - of the girl’s - blood), he’ll have access to the network. But psychic abilities  _must_ be mostly physiological; his powers are stunted in this body. Furthermore the facility is a high-tech one, even the walls have a dampening affect on Mantis’ abilities. He can’t so much as unlock the door.

Running isn’t an option. Hiding in the network isn’t, either — if whoever broke in really is after the girl, then Mantis doesn’t trust her to keep them _both_ alive. Mantis might be able to bargain, or fight back if worst comes to worst, but the girl… by Mantis’ reckoning she’s about sixteen, but a combination of having her childhood violently ripped away from her and winding up in such a sheltered environment as this _prison_ has left her extremely immature and volatile. A child who doesn’t understand what’s going on, just that she’s scared and she hates it. The haphazard splicing of Mantis’ personality into her own doesn’t help. (Do the Patriots even know that that resulted in her gaining an alternate personality - that being _the real thing?_ Do they know that when she says something ‘Mantis-like’, it’s just the man himself speaking through her mouth?)

If the girl dies, then he dies. Mantis knows that. And he knows that he won’t luck out like Eli did and manage to attach his ghost, spirit, soul, _whatever_ to a virtual facsimile of him; that only worked because Mantis had put so much time and effort into turning the Liquid Snake AI into the genuine article or something close enough to sate his loneliness. Maybe they should have worked over the Psycho Mantis AI from the same simulation but Mantis would have been uncomfortable with that and now it’s too late, anyway.

 _I’m going to die here_ , Mantis realizes, _and I’m never going to see Eli again_. Because of course, Eli is effectively immortal now, unless someone ever somehow manages to take down the Patriot network.

His shoulders shake as he curls more in on himself, pressing his face against his - the girl’s? - bare knees. He’s going to die and he’s going to die cowering under a bed wearing a goddamn cotton nightgown.

He doesn’t want to die. Not again.

Not when he knows how much it hurt Eli to have to live on without him.

Mantis scrambles out from under the bed and it takes a good bit of concentration to do it, but he snaps the curtain rod from its fixings on the wall. It’s curved, but sharp on the broken ends, and he rips the curtain off it and throws it to the floor, gripping the rod so tightly his knuckles turn white. He only knows physical combat on a theoretical, conceptual level - he’s always relied on his psychokinesis, among other things, during combat - and the girl’s no good either even though she’s got a fair bit more weight on her than Mantis ever did in his own body.

But adrenaline, determination, and sheer desperation can make up where skill falls short. The gunfire in the hallway immediately outside stops abruptly, and he hears someone walk up to his door. The plate slides to the side. Mantis can see part of someone’s face. He grips his makeshift weapon tighter.

He doesn’t really know of any Patriots with sunglasses.

“You might want to step away from the door,” the man standing at the window says, and Mantis’ blood runs cold.

It’s been about five years since he’s heard it but _that’s Ocelot’s voice_.

Mantis steps back to the corner of the room, more out of panic than anything else. Someone shoots out the lock of the door, and it swings open. Mantis openly gapes, weapon nearly forgotten.

Ocelot looks _ridiculous_.

No, it’s not the sunglasses - to be honest, they’re the least offensively hideous sunglasses Mantis has ever seen Ocelot wear — nor is it the way that his long hair just falls loosely over his shoulders. It’s more the fingerless gloves, the knee-length black coat over a _bare chest_ — no, it’s his _stance_. The way he’s _holding_ himself. It’s not right.

The way he grins at Mantis and spreads his arms, it’s not right.

“Mantis!” he says, and the warmth in his voice makes Mantis’ skin go clammy, “I’d heard they’d stuck you in the body of a teenage girl. Do you have any idea how long it took me to find you?”

Mantis just stares at him in shock and horror. “What?” he eventually rasps out.

Ocelot frowns, then turns slightly to the helmeted gun-toting woman next to him and waves her off. She salutes and goes. Ocelot turns back to Mantis. “We don’t have a whole lot of time,” he says, “but I’d really rather not do this forcefully and I know you won’t go with me willingly unless I explain myself.”

He’s not telegraphing any threat, although his posture and mannerisms - and the way he speaks - are still bothering Mantis. They’re not Ocelot, that’s for sure, but Mantis is relatively familiar with the way Ocelot can change personas in a heartbeat. This just isn’t any ‘Ocelot’ persona he’s ever seen, at least that he can remember. It’s been a long time since FOXHOUND, even longer since the KGB…

Ocelot sits on his bed in an overly-familiar way and pats the sheets next to him. Mantis doesn’t budge. Ocelot sighs, as if exasperated, then launches into an explanation:

“I doubt you’ve heard this, being trapped here this whole time, but… remember how Gray Fox - that crazy ninja - chopped Ocelot’s hand off at Shadow Moses?” He raises his right hand and points to it with his left. The skin tone is different, but Mantis distinctly remembers Eli’s memories of Ocelot tourniqueting that limb — there’s no way he _kept_ it, this must be a particularly realistic prosthetic. “Well, Ocelot decided to saw _my_ hand off of my cold dead body and sew it onto himself as a replacement. Bit of a sick fuck, isn’t he?”

Mantis licks his lips. “Liquid?” he says at length.

Ocelot blinks, then pushes his sunglasses up to his forehead and rubs his eyes. “I should have _started_ with that, sorry,” he says. “Yes. Mantis, it’s me.”

Bullshit.

Bullshit bullshit bullshit. This is _such_ bullshit. No it most certainly is fucking not Eli, Eli is in a safari program in the distributed computing subsection of the Patriot network known as ‘GW’ right now. Ocelot’s pulled that self-hypnosis, psychological doppelgänger _crap_ again, like he did in the seventies or whenever. Mantis has never been clear on the details.

It… _does_ explain the odd behavior, though. The way Ocelot’s carrying himself - it’s exactly like Eli. An even better impression of him than the AI. His speech patterns are down pat as well, although he dropped the accent. (It was affected anyway, but to cover for the “low class” London accent… Ocelot’s just scrubbed his voice entirely…)

“You seem suspicious,” Ocelot says, peering at Mantis. Mantis wonders if there’s a part of Ocelot’s original psyche deep down that’s starting to think he can’t pull this off. “Oh, I’m sure you can’t read my mind anymore. This _is_ technically Ocelot’s body, after all… or originally, anyway. It’s mine now.”

“…right.”

“Really! I took it over. His mind wasn’t strong enough to resist me _forever_. So now I’m going to finish what I set out to do.”

“To destroy the Patriots?”

Ocelot beams at him. Mantis’ grip on the curtain rod tightens again - he hadn’t even noticed he’d loosened it. (If Ocelot has Eli’s personality now, doesn’t that mean that he’d never do anything to harm him? No… he can’t be sure how stable this persona was. At any second the real personality could break through. Does Ocelot struggle against his own mind?)

“And find and kill Solid Snake and Big Boss, too,” Mantis continues.

“You always were a step ahead of me, Mantis,” Ocelot says brightly, “I know you don’t much care for my father either way, but Snake _did_ kill you, and considering your…” he gestures to the room around them, “ _circumstances_ for the past half-decade, I imagine you’re at least _interested_ in going after the Patriots… no?”

Mantis isn’t sure what to do.

Ocelot stands up, strides over towards Mantis. Mantis shrinks. Oh god, he’s so tall. Well, no, the girl’s just short. He hasn’t realized how short she is in relation to his original height up until now. “You know, I was absolutely beside myself when I heard that they’d ‘resurrected’ you after Shadow Moses. I was so- just so _devastated_ by your passing, I’m afraid I acted… well, nevermind. That doesn’t matter now, you’re alive! And so am I! Who cares that these aren’t _our_ bodies…”

He reaches out to Mantis. Mantis flinches. Ocelot pauses.

“…you are right,” Mantis says at length, mouth dry. “These _aren’t_ our bodies. So… please do not touch me.”

Ocelot looks disappointed. It makes Mantis feel sick to his stomach. He might be pretending to be Eli right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is _Ocelot_ who is likely enough thinking of Mantis in _that way_.

Instead of touching Mantis, he grabs the curtain rod and pulls it out of Mantis’ hands with minimal effort. Without anything to hold, Mantis realizes his hands are shaking, and clutches the hem of his nightgown instead.

“It’s been about six months since I was finally able to oust Ocelot from my head,” Ocelot says softly. Yeah, right. Six months since his self-hypnosis took full effect, more like. “I’ve been searching for you ever since, Mantis.”

“…”

“Please come with me.”

“I… need to think about it.”

“ _Please_. I need you. You know I do.”

Taking out the Patriots is tempting. _Freedom_ is tempting. But jumping ship like this… is that really okay?

“…I have nanomachines,” Mantis says at length.

“We can deactivate them,” Ocelot replies.

“No!”

Ocelot is startled. “And why not?”

“I… I use them to access the computer network. It is very important. I need to be able to do that.”

“But—“

“If you sever me from the network then I will not come with you,” Mantis says firmly.

Ocelot’s jaw tightens, his nostrils flaring. “You’d rather _rot_ here? Alone!?”

Mantis cringes, his hands clenching harder. He stares at his socked feet. “I want to come with you… Eli,” he adds deliberately, and Ocelot relaxes, “but I must be able to continue accessing the network. You can’t touch my nanomachines. I need them.”

“What’s so important about the network?”

“That is my business and mine alone.”

There’s a bit of a pause, and Ocelot crosses his arms. “They can find you with those still active, you know,” he says, “find _us_. That wouldn’t be good, and that’s putting it lightly.”

“I can access the nanomachines’ programming and deactivate the tracking. They may still be able to know when I am active, but not my - our - location.”

“And you’re certain that will… work?”

“I do not see why it wouldn’t.”

Ocelot in this situation would have refused that, insisted on complete deactivation - and removal, if they ever found the opportunity to flush Mantis’ bloodstream - and left Mantis in this facility without a second thought if he continued to insist on network access. Might have just shot him, too. No, that was more likely than anything else.

But Mantis’ fear was subverted. With Eli’s personality in place, Ocelot merely nods and says he trusts Mantis, then holds out his hand again - his right one, what a nice touch.

“Come on,” he says, “we’re getting out of here. You do whatever it is you need to do to disrupt the tracking while we’re on our way out.”

“I… I have to sleep for that.”

“I can carry you.”

The thought makes Mantis want to vomit. He shakes his head. “Not what I meant… the girl… the girl whose body this is originally, I mean, she comes awake when I am asleep. She’ll be… confused.”

“Well then, I’ll take good care of her! Come on now, we’re already out of time. I don’t want you getting hurt on the way out.”

Mantis takes a deep breath. This is sudden, but isn’t this what he was waiting for? He’s terrified that Ocelot will cut his network connection after all, and doesn’t know how much he can trust him — but this is his _chance_.

So he reaches out and takes Ocelot’s hand. His skin is too-cool and feels like some sort of soft, flexible plastic.

Yeah. Definitely a prosthetic.

* * *

“Eli!”

Eli turns around. “Mantis?” he says, surprised, “this is a lot sooner than you said you’d-“

Mantis grabs him by the lapels of his coat. His whole body is trembling. Eli is, needless to say, alarmed. “Eli, it’s- oh god—“

“What’s wrong? What happened?!”

“It’s _Ocelot_. He came.”

Mantis explains the situation in a rush, still clinging to Eli. He’s scared and isn’t sure he made the right decision and as soon as he’s done he abruptly pulls back from Eli and chokes out, “I need to go back.”

“What? No, stay a minute. What _is_ this? He stole my _entire personality??_ ”

“That must have been what he meant when he said you gave him a ‘clean break’ from the Patriots! I have to go. I don’t know what is going on over there, what if he removes my network access??”

“If he’s got my personality right now, then he won’t go back on a promise - not one made to _you_ , anyway.”

“I don’t know how much he _has_ your personality. It may flicker in and out, I do not know. And if he severs my connection to the network while I am _in_ the network… that would sever my consciousness’ connection to the girl’s body… I would _die_ again, Eli. I am taking a _huge_ risk by coming here.”

The color drains from Eli’s face. “But- if he—“

“If he cuts me off but I am still alive, then I will escape from him… somehow… and I will find a way back to you. I will turn myself back in to the Patriots if I have to!”

“Mantis, you can’t be serious! You just escaped from them!”

“ _You_ are more important!!”

Eli starts at Mantis’ declaration, a rare fit of passion from him, and he steps back, raising the back of his own hand to his mouth. His expression is troubled, but he nods.

“Alright,” he says, voice wavering slightly, “go. But please, Mantis — _please_ , for the love of God, come back to me as soon as everything’s settled.”

“I… will try.”

“You promise?”

“I promise. I cannot promise that I will be _able_ to, but I will do everything in my power to return to you.”

“…that’s good enough.”

* * *

Mantis comes to in the back of a van bouncing along an unpaved road at a dangerously high speed.

He knows the other girls sitting the back with him, although he never bothers to remember their names. The African with her knees drawn up to her chest, softly sniffling and wiping her eyes; the Indonesian who grits her teeth and claws at her own legs with her nails; the Scandinavian who keeps looking around the back of the van with a faint smile on her face, like she knows this all a big joke and she’s politely waiting for the punchline… he’s met them all before, trained with them, that sort of thing.

The Scandinavian's the one who speaks up first. “Mantis, you’re different again.”

“Hm.”

Her nose wrinkles. “You’re the old man again, aren’t you?”

Rude. Mantis hates it when she calls him that, these girls might be fifteen to seventeen but if Mantis were still alive he’d only be 35 or 36. That really is _not_ that old, even compared to them.

The African notices his glare and nods at the Scandinavian - yes, this is ‘the old man’. Mantis can tell that all their nanomachines have been deactivated, since now he can read their minds normally instead of artificially — although he supposes he can’t rule out them getting new “Liquid Ocelot”-brand ones in the near future. Of course, being able to read their thoughts doesn’t help much, they’re all fundamentally broken people…

“Do you know what’s going on?” the Indonesian whispers to Mantis.

“We are free,” Mantis says. “Oc-— Liquid freed us.”

“Liquid?” the African says, cocking her head and wiping her eyes again.

“My old boss. Our new one.”

“ _You’ll_ always be our boss, old man,” the Scandinavian giggles. “You are our commander, aren’t you?”

“…I never asked for that…”

“Where are we going, commander?” the Indonesian asks.

“I do not know.”

“Does anyone know?”

“Does it matter, Raven?” the Scandinavian titters, shaking her finger scoldingly. “We’re getting away from that fucking prison, finally!”

“I’ll miss it,” the African says, hugging herself, “all my favorite caretakers are probably dead now…”

“Yeah! I bet Liquid shot them!!” The Scandinavian laughs loudly. The African starts crying again, and the Indonesian just rolls her eyes irritably.

A helmeted woman like the one buddied up with Ocelot earlier slides back the panel that separates the back of the van from the front seats. “What’s going on back here?” she says.

“Wolf just started crying on her own, isn’t that funny?” the Scandinavian says.

“Octopus is a bully,” the Indonesian snaps.

“Everything is fine,” Mantis says with a sigh, “they are _always_ like this.” He wouldn’t have spent time with them while they weren’t in training together even _if_ that had been an option.

“Screaming Mantis,” the helmeted woman says, “the boss wants to know if you’ve disabled the tracking on your nanomachines yet.”

Mantis nods. “I corrupted the GPS-transmitting subroutine. _If_ the Patriots are getting location reports still, they will not be accurate.”

“That’s good to know. Thank you.” She salutes awkwardly in the cramped space of the van’s cabin, the slides the panel shut again.

“How come you get to keep your nanomachines?” the Indonesian says, frowning petulantly, “they just deactivated _ours_.”

Mantis waves her off. “I made a deal with Liquid, that is all.”

“Huh! We didn’t get any deals!”

“Liquid likes _her_ better,” the African says, wiping her nose with the back of her arm.

“Liquid likes the old man better,” the Scandinavian corrects gleefully. She claps her hands to her cheeks and twists side-to-side in her seat. “I bet they’re in _love_ ,” she says in a sing-song voice.

Mantis now remembers why the Scandinavian is his least favorite of all the girls. He scowls at her. “Have you _seen_ him?” he says, “how could I ever be in love with someone like _that?_ ”

“You’re old too, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind a moustache!”

Mantis claps his hands to his mouth. He is pretty sure he is about to start retching at the thought of him and _Ocelot_. The fact that he’s stolen Eli’s identity just makes the prospect _worse_.

…oh, god. What if Liquid Ocelot tries the same shit Eli always does over in the VR? That can’t be, right? He might have filled his skull with Liquid’s thoughts, memories, and personality, but he’s still _Ocelot_. Ocelot couldn’t get it up for a female. There was no way. Not without drugs.

…penile functionality really had no bearing on Eli in the computer world…

“Mantis?” the African says, looking up, “are you okay?”

“I… feel sick, that is all…”

“Carsick…?”

Mantis nods shakily even though that’s far from the case. These girls _really_ do _not_ need to know what’s running through his head right now.

The van keeps speeding away from the Patriot facility, wherever that was precisely. After a stretch of silence, the Indonesian attempts to bring back conversation by giving a very graphic and detailed account of the deaths that had occured right in front of her today. The Scandinavian listens, enraptured, occasionally giggling, while the African just slumps further into her seat, curling in on herself despondently even more.

And Mantis waits, as patiently as he can, for another opportunity to talk to Ocelot.

* * *

Mantis has no idea where they are, except that there are a lot of trees around when they’re let out of the van and it’s rather hot and humid, despite it being nighttime. The van’s parked outside of a sprawling house that looks abandoned on the outside, but when the helmeted women usher Mantis and the girls into it, the inside looks perfectly normal, if a bit plain.

“Oh, not you, Screaming Mantis,” one of the helmeted women says when Mantis moves to follow the other girls being lead off down a hallway. “The boss wants to see you in his room.”

Mantis swallows hard, but nods. He needs a definitive answer as to how thoroughly Ocelot’s ‘Liquid’ persona has dominated his normal one, and if he’s really going to keep his promise about network access… and it’d be better to establish now, rather than later, that he doesn’t want Ocelot touching him or making indecent advances. Or even _saying_ anything remotely romantic, hearing assurances of affection coming from _Ocelot’s_ mouth would send Mantis into convulsions, he is sure.

It’s with some trepidation that he enters Ocelot’s room after his helmeted escort knocks on the door then opens it for him. The woman closes the door behind him, and Mantis is unsettled to realize that he and Ocelot are alone.

“…you wanted to see me, boss?” he says at length.

Ocelot glances over at him, carelessly shoving aside papers - looks like maps - on the desk he’s sitting at. “You don’t need to be so formal with me, you know,” he says, “we’re by ourselves right now.”

Mantis bites his tongue. He sort of wants to call Ocelot out on the fact that Eli is, or was, generally annoyed with Mantis using his given name, but implying he can use it now can hardly be called out-of-character.

“You’re so tense… why don’t you sit down? I know a lot’s happened today…”

“I’m fine.”

“I insist.” He gestures to the bed. Dammit. It’s the only place to sit in here besides the desk chair, which is currently occupied. Mantis sits down on the bed anyway, hoping that Ocelot will _stay_ in the desk chair.

But of course he doesn’t. As soon as Mantis sits down, Ocelot stands up, but thankfully instead of joining Mantis at the bed he just folds his hands behind his back and starts pacing the room.

“What is it that’s so important about the network, anyway, Mantis? It’s been bothering me.”

“I told you, that is my business.”

“You didn’t used to keep secrets from me.”

Alright, Mantis can’t help but smirk at that. “It only never occured to you that I was keeping secrets from you.”

Ocelot whirls around, hands on his hips. Mantis’ smirk vanishes - it’s just disturbing, on a visceral level, to see such an Eli-esque expression of annoyance on Ocelot’s face. “How dare you! You never let _me_ keep any secrets from _you_.”

“That couldn’t be helped,” Mantis sniffs. “Besides, it has been five years and you and I are both dead… no?”

“I don’t see how that should change things.”

 _It changes things because you ARE NOT ELI!!_ Mantis screams in his head, but stays silent. After a moment, Ocelot huffs and goes back to pacing.

“Be secretive all you like, then,” he says sourly, “I won’t pry. I’m sure you’re just… uncomfortable after all the time we’ve spent apart, and you just need to warm up to me again! And of course me being in Ocelot’s body… that doesn’t help, no? So I’ll give you time…”

Mantis doesn’t comment. It doesn’t matter to him if Ocelot is completely off the mark, even if this is the first time he’s ever seen Ocelot like that. He used to wonder if Ocelot was some sort of psychic himself.

“But anyway… I just wanted you to know that I _do_ intend to keep my promise about letting you access the network… since you kept your promise about deactivating your nanomachines’ tracking capabilities. We weren’t followed here. Your nanomachines are no threat, even if you _are_ still attached to the network.”

Mantis lets out a sigh of relief.

“Furthermore… it could actually prove very convenient to us for you to have access to the network.”

Mantis blinks, then peers at him suspiciously. “What are you thinking?” he says, “I will tell you upfront that I am incapable of affecting anything major. There are certain firewalls I cannot get past.”

“Oh, that won’t be an issue,” Ocelot says, turning back to him and waving a hand good-naturedly. “If you spend time browsing the network, then surely you know it’s subdivided? AL, TR, TJ, GW, and JD…? All subsections of network controlled by a respective AI, with JD coordinating the whole thing. Does that sound about right?”

“To my knowledge, yes.” He pauses, then figures there’s no harm in adding, “the section of network that myself and the others were tied into… that was GW for a while. We were switched to another after GW went down, but…” He frowns. Actually, now that he thinks about it… GW _didn’t_ really go down. It’s still there, and still in the network. _Eli_ is in GW, since GW is the one with the most distributed computer and therefore the easiest to hide the VR program in, and nothing has changed on his end, even after Mantis and the girls had their nanomachines recalibrated with one of the other AIs.

“…but GW didn’t actually go down,” Ocelot says, clapping his hands together. “It’s still in the network, even — just all in pieces. It’s a _spook_ , Mantis, it’s our _way in_.”

“…what are you planning?”

“I’m going to use GW to take over the _entire_ network! Of course, the whole plan’s still a work in progress - I need unlock keys, and there are some other hoops to jump through — and we’ll have to take out JD entirely.”

“Hmm.” Mantis supposes that even having Ocelot in charge of the network wouldn’t change anything on Eli’s end, either. Or, maybe.

“And that, I believe, is where _you_ come in. With your relatively unfettered access to the network, you should be able to ease our path to taking it over… or at least tell us _how_ to take it over.”

“I really do not know anything about computers…”

“We’ll work things out. Really, all I need you to do right now is agree to help me on this.”

Mantis stares at his lap. Ugh. He really needs to ask for something different to wear… “What if I say no?”

“Why would you do that?” Ocelot sounds genuinely baffled.

“…suppose I simply do not consider myself capable of doing as you ask.”

Mantis had been too used to hearing the constant jangle of Ocelot’s spurs to ever realize how _silently_ the man could move. He doesn’t realize Ocelot has walked over to him until he puts a hand on Mantis’ shoulder, and Mantis jumps.

“I told you not to touch me!” he snaps, swatting Ocelot’s hand away and backing up on the bed, for lack of anywhere better to flee.

Ocelot blinks, but doesn’t pursue. Instead he says, with a sincerity Mantis sees often in Eli that he’d _never_ seen in _Ocelot_ , “I don’t mind if you decide not to help, I can figure something else out. I’m just glad you’re with me.”

“Are you now.”

“I am, really! When I was looking for you… all that time, I wasn’t thinking about how _useful_ or _helpful_ you’d be, I was only thinking about how I was concerned for your safety… and how badly I wanted to see you again. Hell, I was prepared for the possibility that you would be _physically incapable_ of helping me even if you _wanted_ to…” He sits down on the mattress, and Mantis scoots away again. Ocelot doesn’t really acknowledge it. “I figured that as long as I could have you by my side again, everything would be alright.”

“…”

“Mantis…”

Ohhh god. Here it comes.

“I still love you, you know.”

Mantis manages to disguise the bile suddenly rising in his throat with an awkward coughing fit. He rubs the back of his neck when he’s done, lips twitching.

“Mantis, are you alright?”

“I am just tired,” he lies, “this girl requires a normal sleep schedule, I think, so I wear out more easily nowadays.”

“Oh… right. Well, I won’t keep you up, then.”

“Mm. Will that soldier of yours outside show me to where I am to sleep tonight, then?”

Ocelot’s face falls. “I was… sort of hoping you could spend the night with me.”

Mantis coughs again. Oh no no no. “I told you, this is not my body. I do not want you touching it.”

“I don’t mean in _that_ way! Ocelot’s bloody ancient, I probably couldn’t even if I _wanted_ to.”

 _That does not stop you from getting_ other _ideas, though,_ Mantis thinks acidly.

“I just… thought it would be nice… nevermind. I’m entirely used to sleeping alone again.”

That kind of passive-aggressive ‘oh, pity me’ tactic isn’t going to work on Mantis, considering he knows full well that this isn’t actually Eli. But he doesn’t point that out.

“Nevermind,” Ocelot says again. “But… do tell me what you’ve decided about helping us with the network.”

“I need to think about it.”

“In the morning, then.”

“Perhaps.” Mantis gets up and crosses the room to the doorway. “Good night, boss.”

“Good… good night…”

The room with the other girls in it only has three beds, so Mantis ends up lying down in a sleeping bag on the floor. He stares up at the dark ceiling for several minutes before closing his eyes and absconding into the network.

* * *

“Eli.”

“Oh thank God, you’re back. You can stay?”

Mantis nods, and easily falls into Eli’s arms, letting him pick him up and carry him to a nice shade-tree. It’s daytime here.

He tells Eli what happened, and Eli nods a couples time as he does it, frowning. At the end of his explanation, Mantis asks Eli what he should do.

“…aren’t you in the body of an underaged girl right now?”

“Eli…”

“And Ocelot tried to put the moves on you? That’s disgusting. I’m insulted that he thought I would do that.”

“…Eli, I am at least partially certain that he meant that fairly innoce-“

“God, if he thinks for even a _second_ that stealing my identity gives him a right to try anything with _you_ —“

“You’re missing the point.”

“Hmph.” Eli quickly undoes Mantis’ mask, but Mantis covers his face with his hands before he can get to him. “Mantis…”

“No. Don’t let your jealousy distract you, this is important.”

“Jealousy? No, I’m just angry. …you really think it’s a good idea to stay with him?”

Mantis shrugs helplessly, lowering his hands. “Escape is an option,” he says, “I would still be able to come see you, if I were on the run. But things in the real world would be… difficult. Keep in mind that while I am here, ‘my’ body is effectively being piloted by a _child_.”

“So if you were on the run, she might get the two of you into trouble…? But Ocelot and his people could babysit, and keep you physically safe when you come here.”

“Precisely. And… this _is_ a chance to strike back against the Patriots.”

“Ocelot really thinks he wants to kill Big Boss?” Eli asks in disbelief.

“It seems so…” Mantis shakes his head. “I am sure he came up with some contingency plan _before_ hypnotizing himself that would ensure that he’d be able to harm Big Boss. If he’d tried to avoid your desire to that entirely, then it’d be out-of-character enough for people to realize that he got rid of your ghost… thereby ruining his clean break.”

“I see… oh, maybe he just hid Big Boss away someplace where ‘I’-“ air quotes, “-couldn’t find him.”

“That’s not out of the question.”

Liquid grins wickedly. “Well then…” he says, leaning a little closer conspiratorially, “suppose _we_ find out where Big Boss is?”

“…you mean _I_ find out where Big Boss is?” Mantis says, reaching up to run his hand back through Eli’s hair.

“Mnn… fine. I really can’t do anything from here. But if you find out Big Boss’ location, and pass it along to to Ocelot… then surely he’ll go and do the dirty work for me. Not terribly satisfying, I’ll admit, but maybe the emotional shock of killing the man he’s utterly besotted with will be enough to bring back the _real_ Ocelot, and then…!”

“And then he kills himself in grief and shame and you get to gloat about it for the rest of your digital life.”

“Yes!” He nuzzles Mantis. “Alright, maybe that entire last part was a bit optimistic. But we _can_ trick Ocelot into getting rid of Big Boss, and it’d serve them both right.”

“So that is what you want me to do… what about the Patriots?”

“…”

“Do I help Ocelot take over the network, Eli? I honestly do not know if I should.”

“Have you thought about it?”

“I just… want you to tell me what to do, Eli.”

“I don’t know either, Mantis.” Eli sighs. “Frankly this is all over my head. If Ocelot took over the whole network, what would he _do_ with it?”

“Whatever _you_ would do with it, I suppose.”

“ _I’d_ just destroy it outright. Let the world run free.”

There’s a long pause.

Eli’s the one to speak the question that just occured to both of them, of course. “What will happen to me?”

“He… the part of the network that you are in is already under his control, Eli.”

“Oh, it is? GW?”

“Yes. So… I suppose nothing would happen to you,” Mantis says, but he says it uncertainly. If GW is all in pieces, then doesn’t that mean that once the rest of the network is taken over, it’d be useless? Would Ocelot just get rid of it?

The computers that host Eli’s VR home aren’t part of GW’s main servers, whatever happened to those. (Mantis honestly has no idea, and Eli wasn’t paying close attention during the Big Shell incident.) Hypothetically even if the network were dissolved then the program would persist… if just enough of a connection between the different computers running it still existed… it wasn’t impossible.

But without the network, how would Mantis ever _find_ Eli? He’d be left alone, forever, if GW were destroyed.

Mantis sits up. “I suppose, then,” he says, “what I need to do is help him… to ensure that the parts of the network that keep _you_ alive will not be touched.”

“Oh…”

“Who knows what will happen to the world with Ocelot in control of the Patriot network… It does not matter to me.” He gestures around them. “ _This_ is what matters me. This is my world - _our_ world. The rest of it can burn for all I care.”

Eli smiles softly at him. “You’re such a romantic.”

“If you say so.”

Eli grabs him and kisses him on the mouth. “I do,” he says, pulling back again, “so… it’s decided, then?”

“Yes. I’ll hand the whole Earth over to _him_ as long as it means I get to keep you.”

Another kiss. “I love you.”

“…sounds so much better in your voice than Ocelot’s…”

* * *

“O-— Liquid.”

Mantis can’t quite make eye contact with Ocelot, but maybe it doesn’t matter because Ocelot doesn’t move those dumb sunglasses out of the way when he turns to look at Mantis.

“Have you decided, Mantis?”

“Yes.”

“…and?”

Mantis takes a deep breath, but lifts his chin.

“I will help. Tell me what you need, boss.”

And Ocelot smiles at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Ocelot’s stealing lines from _Tanabata_!
> 
> (also, this is the last o1&0s fic to be reuploaded!! yay!! everything coming after this will be sent to me to be posted on this account to begin with! and i actually do already have something ready to go, too... -pp)


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